By Sarah (Grade 7)

            It started out as a pretty normal day, to tell you the truth. My friend Tiffany was helping me watch my dad’s music store while he was away at a meeting for the evening, as we had many times before. We were responsible thirteen-year-olds, after all! How could anything go wrong? Unfortunately, on this particular day, it did.

            Oh, sorry, I’d better back up a little. I’m Kara Mackenzie. I’m quite energetic and friendly (most of the time), I enjoy rock-climbing and playing the electric bass, my wavy, shoulder-length, reddish-brown hair is a disaster 24-7 (or at least I think so), and I’m generally well-liked, if I do say so myself.

Anyway, enough about me. I’d better start at the beginning.

“What time is it?” I complained boredly, “I haven’t seen a customer in ages!”

“Seven twenty-eight and forty-seven seconds,” Tiffany answered, smiling and revealing a set of purple braces. She didn’t like them (being an extremely shy and self-conscious person, but don’t tell her I said that), but I thought they were pretty cool.

I was in mid-yawn as we closed up the store, when all of a sudden a loud, high-pitching squealing broke the dull silence. Panicking, Tiffany whirled her head of long, beautiful blond hair around in circles to try and locate the source of the noise, while Sara, my adorable Golden Retriever, went berserk, and I covered my ears.

“The vault!!” Tiffany cried.

We ran downstairs and made an astonishing discovery- the vault door was ajar, and Ellvis Prezzleyton’s famous golden clarinet was gone!

“Oh no!” I cried in dismay. “That was a family heirloom worth millions of dollars!!”

Tiffany and I investigated the crime scene, but were unsuccessful at noticing anything abnormal except for the fact that the empty room now had little turquoise aquarium rocks scattered across the floor, and smelled strongly of tuna. Eww!

“I’d better go now. It’s getting pretty late, and I said I’d meet Alberta at Mini Golf Zone at eight!” said Tiffany sadly. She liked mini-golf, but she wished she could help me with the case. She was a naturally curious person.

We climbed the steep staircase silently, each of us deep in thought- about the mystery, no doubt.

“Okay, see ya! Have fun!” I called encouragingly as she stepped out into the chilly October evening. Mini Golf Zone was in another part of Halifax, so she’d have to take a bus there.

I went back downstairs to continue the investigation. Hmm… That’s odd; the thief didn’t even break the lock on the vault door, the back door, or even the glass display case… Could they have known the combinations?

“Eureka!” I cried. Of course! Why didn’t I think of it before!

I quickly fingerprint-checked the glass display case surrounding the elegant marble pedestal that normally housed the golden clarinet. Bingo! There were fingerprints on the handle of the door! My dad and I (my mom, being a veterinarian, usually had nothing to do with the music store) were always careful to use gloves to open the display case just in case something like this happened, but apparently the clarinet thief was not so cunning as to do the same!

I scanned the fingerprints into my laptop and emailed them (and my current situation) to my aunt in Ontario, who was a CSI agent. Then, seeing as I couldn’t call my dad who had forgotten his cell phone on the kitchen counter, I decided to call Tiffany and give her a status report.

“I have fantastic news!” I exclaimed, after Tiffany answered her cell phone.

“What?” asked Tiffany.

“I lifted some fingerprints, and… AAAHHHH!!!” The telephone conversation ended abruptly.

“Kara? Kara? Are you there? Hello?” said Tiffany nervously.

What should I do now? She wondered. She had never really been a take-charge person, being extraordinarily shy and all, but she was obviously going to have to start now.

“Uhh… Sorry, I guess I’d better go,” she apologized to Alberta.

I have enough time, right? My parents aren’t expecting me home for another couple of hours, so that should be enough time, right? Or is it? What should I do? All this ran through Tiffany’s head as she jumped on the bus back to the music store.

Meanwhile, I woke up in a strange place with my ankles tied together, and a blindfold over my eyes. The sinister place was filled with the stench of rotting fish and seaweed. Thoroughly disgusted and refusing to breathe in through my nose, I tried to untie my blindfold and the rope binding my ankles, but to no avail. Hmmm… I tried another approach- hopping blindly. Ow! I quickly discovered that making contact with walls is not fun. Judging by my aching head, I figured that I occupied some kind of prison cell- one that needed air fresheners. Sigh.

As I pondered what to do, Tiffany arrived at her destination.

“Hello?” she called out into the night. Finding no answer and owning no key, she decided to try the back door. Thankfully, it was mysteriously left ajar.

“Rrrrrrorurrurur-RR-rruff!” greeted Sara anxiously as Tiffany entered the house, as if to say, “Where did my people go?”

“It’s okay Sara, we’re going to find Tiffany soon,” soothed Tiffany, massaging her ears. Sara liked that, but appeared to want to lead her somewhere.

Tiffany curiously followed Sara up two flights of stairs into Kara’s apartment until they came to a beeping laptop, left open on the table. "You have mail!", the screen read. Tiffany clicked the little envelope icon, and read the following E-mail:

From: mysterygurl_003 @nonexistent.com

Re: Emergency

Hi, Kara!

I’m sorry to hear it, but it sounds like you’re in quite a predicament. However, the results of the fingerprint test were positive, and I figured out the following information about the mystery person:

“Gregory Jenkins; born 1960; Owner of Greg’s Fish Food Company; served two jail sentences within the last twenty years”

Does that help? Good luck solving the mystery!

Love, Auntie Rita

Tiffany gaped at the flickering computer screen. So that’s what Kara (I) was trying to tell her! She quickly searched the Internet and found the address of Greg’s Fish Food Company’s head location. Ironically enough, it was across the street! Tiffany couldn’t believe her good luck.

However, before heading across the street, she first put Sara on her leash so she could come too. You could never have too much company (and protection), right?

Tiffany crossed the street, and then walked around to the back of the building. Sara excitedly sniffed the low window a little ways away from the back door, so Tiffany kneeled down to peer through it.

“Kara?” she whispered loudly.

I, being inside that very room, tried to reply, but quickly discovered that I had a band of fabric tied across my mouth as well.

“Mmmph! Mm-mm-mmm-mmm-mmph!!” I urgently, well, hummed.

Hearing my voice, Tiffany urgently tried to get the door open as quickly and quietly as she could, but unfortunately, this door wasn’t irresponsibly left unlocked like the other, so Tiffany was forced to guess random combinations.

“Hmmm… 000?” mumbled Tiffany, fumbling with the combination lock.

Click. The door swung open.

“How original,” muttered Tiffany, tiptoeing inside.

Fortunately, the key ring was hanging right beside the cell, so Tiffany slipped it off its hook and tried many keys until finally the door unlocked.

“Mm-mmmpph?” I hummed, hoping it was Tiffany.

“It’s me,” She whispered, and Sara confirmed it with a little snuffle into my hand.

Tiffany got the blindfold and band on my mouth untied, but unfortunately, the knot on the rope tying my ankles together was still stuck tight.

“I’m so glad you came!” I whispered joyfully. “How did you find me?”

“Your aunt returned your email, and said that the fingerprints belonged to someone named Gregory Jenkins.” Tiffany responded.

“Oh! Doesn’t he own that fish food factory across the street from the music store?” I asked.

“Uh-huh, that’s where you are now,” replied Tiffany.

“That explains a lot,” I muttered under my breath, holding my nose.

The three of us continued quietly down the long, dark, filthy hallway, Tiffany walking quietly, and I, well, hopping. It reminded me of an old abandoned prison or something, with leaks from the ceiling and everything.

Drip, drip, drip… Screech!

A bat screeched in the distance and Tiffany and I nearly jumped out of our skins.

Yes, it was deserted, but I still couldn’t help feeling like we were being caught on film…

All of a sudden, Tiffany reached down to pet Sara and made a shocking discovery.

“Uhh, Kara?” she asked nervously.

“What?” I responded.

“Err… Sara’s kind of… Well… Gone.”

I gaped open-mouthed and stopped abruptly, causing Tiffany to almost run into me.

“We have to go back!” I shouted, panicking.

“Shhh!” Tiffany hissed. “They might hear us!”

“Is she behind us?” I asked quietly, trying to stay calm.

We peered down the entire length of the completely straight hallway, but Sara and her leash had disappeared.

 “I must have dropped her leash when we heard that bat,” muttered Tiffany, ashamed.

“That was only a couple of minutes ago! Where could she possibly have gone?” I asked sadly.

“If we want to find the golden clarinet and escape with our lives, I’m afraid we’ll have to continue on,” Tiffany lamented.

“I suppose so,” I sighed, and we continued onward.

All of a sudden, we approached a long, steep, creaky staircase. It spun around in a tight circle, so by the time we finally got to the top, I was feeling quite dizzy. I opened the door ahead of us, and…

“Wow,” Tiffany breathed.

We found ourselves on a little viewing platform overlooking the largest indoor lake (complete with gross- looking algae) that I had ever seen, dimly lit and surrounded by tropical trees. The water was filled with all kinds of fish. In front of us was a diving board, and to our right was a plaque that read, Jenkins’ Fish Food Testing Lake, est. 1962.

Suddenly, the door behind us slammed shut.

“Looking for someone?” cackled a sinister voice.

We spun around to find none other than Gregory Jenkins himself, carrying poor Sara by the scruff of her neck.

“I was thinking of trying a new ingredient in my new line of shark food,” Greg said, smirking. “How about dog?”

With that, before we could stop him, he tossed Sara into the water.

“She can’t swim!” I shrieked hysterically, but he had already disappeared without a trace.

My first impulse was to jump in after her, but then I realized that that wouldn’t be particularly intelligent, due to the fact that my ankles were tied together. I looked pleadingly over to Tiffany.

Tiffany now faced an inner conflict. You see, she used to be the best swimmer I had ever known, but one day, about two years ago, she was swept away by a very strong undertow and nearly paralyzed from the neck down. She’s been very skittish around water since. However, she also cared about Sara, and knew how deeply the loss would affect me.

Swallowing her fear, Tiffany stepped onto the diving board and took the plunge.

Part of me wanted to cheer, but the other part of me was a little nervous. Could Tiffany still swim? She had made contact with the water, but wasn’t coming up.

Three seconds, four seconds… I held my breath. Thankfully, at that moment Tiffany’s head finally bobbed to the surface, and she swam confidently over to the drowning dog.

“I think I’ve got the hang of this!” She yelled to me, sounding relieved, as she towed Sara over to the water’s edge, then climbed out herself.

Still unable to use my legs, I got an idea. I hopped over to the plaque and did a handstand, being sure to get the rope around my ankles stuck on the corner of the plaque. I then focused my whole weight on getting myself back into a standing position, and the rope snapped! Thankful to have received the use of my legs, I then leaped off the diving board and swam over to join Tiffany.

She seemed quite proud of herself, but still urgent. “Kara, we need to get out of here!!”

The three of us (Sara fully recovered) ran as far and fast as we could, although where we were going was still unclear, as long as we were going out. Let’s see… A turn her, a door there…

I still don’t know how we managed it, but we finally came to a large, bright room with marble pillars and a large French door leading to the great outdoors. In that room was also a sapphire pedestal holding the golden clarinet! We grabbed it and ran outside as fast as we could. Alarms were blaring, but at that point, we didn’t even care, we just wanted to leave.

We ran across the street just as my dad pulled into the driveway.

“Trophy… Stolen… Fish… Dog…” Tiffany and I muttered, both of us completely out of breath.

“I think you’d better tell me your story from the beginning,” my dad said curiously.

I told my story, and found out that Gregory had gone to high school with my dad! Apparently my father had beaten Greg at every sport, and Greg has had a grudge against him ever since. Apparently, Gregory even bugged our phone to find out the combinations to our locks!! Greg was put in jail and given help by the jail psychiatrist.

So, Tiffany found the courage and leadership that was inside of her all along, the clarinet was safe, and what started out as a horrible evening really didn’t end up being quite as bad as we’d thought.

J The End J

**Note: Pics from ClipArt**